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Uranian is a term originally used in the 19th and early 20th centuries referring primarily to gay men as well as "effeminate" men and transfeminine people who identified partly with masculinity and were attracted to men. In the 21st century, it has made a resurgence as a term for gay men and men-aligned people and is now one of multiple terms used to describe gay men such as vincian and turian.

It is generally used as a masculine equivalent of lesbian. The term is also sometimes used by neutral-aligned, abinary, or unaligned non-binary people who are attracted to men, men-aligned people, masculine-aligned people, and other non-binary people who self-identify as uranians.

History

The term was first published by German sexologist and activist Karl Heinrich Ulrichs in a series of five booklets collected under the title Forschungen über das Räthsel der mannmännlichen Liebe or The Riddle of Man–Manly Love.^[1] Ulrichs developed his terminology before the first public use of the term homosexual. Later, another sexologist named Magnus Hirschfeld would use Ulrichs work to create the terms urning, a "male-bodied person with a female psyche" who is attracted to men and urningin (or uranierin, urnin, and urnigin), a "female-bodied person with a male psyche" who is attracted to women.^[2] However, by the 1900s, the concept of "women urnings" had fallen out of use.^[3]

John Addington Symonds was the first person to use the term "Uranian" in the English language,^[4] and its etymology through Ulrichs is credited to him. However, it has been argued that this usage of the word is unrelated to Ulrichs' coinage and was independently thought of among English speakers familiar with Plato's Symposium.

The term would define a movement of primarily gay male artists and philosophers in the English-speaking world interested in the study of classics and who dabbled in pederastic poetry from the 1870s to the 1930s, including Oscar Wilde. The writings of this group are now known as Uranian poetry.^[5]

Flag

Twitter user BelyaevValentin proposed a uranian flag on or before June 2020.^[6] The flag is similar to his alternate gay flag, with the last three stripes reflected to indicate gay men's love for gay men.^[7]

An alternate uranian flag was created by Tumblr user beyond-mogai-pride-flags on February 19, 2021.^[8]

Etymology

The word refers to a dialogue in Plato's Symposium on male eros or love. In the dialogue, Pausanias distinguishes between two types of love, symbolized by two different accounts of the birth of Aphrodite, the goddess of love:

Heavenly birth, born of Uranus or the heavens, a birth in which "the female has no part." Uranian Aphrodite is associated with a noble love for male youths and is the source of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs's term urning.
Common birth, as the daughter of Zeus and Dione. Dionic Aphrodite is associated with a common love which "is apt to be of women as well as of youths, and is of the body rather than of the soul." After Dione, Ulrichs gave the name dioning to men who are sexually attracted to women.

Ulrichs interpreted Uranian love as leaving urnings with a "feminine soul."^[9]

Resources

References

[1] The Riddle of "Man-Manly Love", Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, originally self-published in 1864, re-released by Prometheus Books in 1994.

[2] Blog post about the "Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (1919-1933)" exhibit at the Magnus Hirschfeld Institute of Sexology (in German).

[3] Lesbian activist Anna Rüling using uranian as synonymous with homosexual men in her 1904 speech, "What Interest does the Women's Movement have in Solving the Homosexual Problem?"

[4] Secreted Desires: The Major Uranians: Hopkins, Pater and Wilde, Michael M. Kaylor, Masaryk University.

[5] Gutenberg Institute article on Uranian poetry.

[6] Twitter account for the uranian flag.

[7] Twitter post explaining BelyaevValentin's connection with an alternate gay flag created in 2018.

[8] Tumblr post announcing a uranian flag.

[9] The Riddle of "Man-Manly Love", Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, originally self-published in 1864, re-released by Prometheus Books in 1994.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{distinguish|uranic}}
-[[File:Uranian pride flag (gay men flag).png|thumb|The proposed uranian/gay man flag.]]
+[[File:Uranian pride flag (gay men flag).png|thumb|The proposed uranian flag.]]
 [[File:Uranian alternate.png|thumb|An alternate uranian flag.]]
-'''Uranian''' is a term originally used in the 19th and early 20th centuries, most commonly referring to gay [[man|men]]. It was occasionally also extended to cover gay people of any gender, and other sexual and gender variant people, similar to the word [[queer]] today.
+'''Uranian''' is a term originally used in the 19th and early 20th centuries referring primarily to gay [[man|men]] as well as "[[Feminine|effeminate]]" men and [[transfeminine]] people who identified partly with [[Masculine|masculinity]] and were attracted to men. In the 21st century, it has made a resurgence as a term for [[gay]] men and men-[[Gender Alignment|aligned]] people and is now one of multiple terms used to describe gay men such as [[vincian]] and [[turian]].
-In the modern day it is most commonly used to refer to gay men and men-aligned people. Is one of multiple terms used to describe [[gay]] men and is similar to [[vincian]] and [[turian]]. It is generally used as a masculine equivalent of [[lesbian]]. The term is also sometimes used by [[neutral]]-aligned, [[abinary]], or unaligned [[Non-Binary|non-binary]] people who are attracted to men, men-aligned people, masculine aligned people, and other non-binary people who identify as uranians.
+It is generally used as a masculine equivalent of [[lesbian]]. The term is also sometimes used by [[neutral]]-aligned, [[abinary]], or unaligned [[Non-Binary|non-binary]] people who are attracted to men, men-aligned people, masculine-aligned people, and other non-binary people who self-identify as uranians.
 ==History ==
-The term was first published by sexologist and activist Karl Heinrich Ulrichs in a series of five booklets collected under the title ''Forschungen über das Räthsel der mannmännlichen Liebe'' or ''The Riddle of Man–Manly Love''.<ref>[https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Riddle_of_man_manly_Love/KGCGAAAAIAAJ?hl=en ''The Riddle of "Man-Manly Love"'', Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, originally self-published in 1864, re-released by Prometheus Books in 1994.]</ref> In his book he described ''Urning'' as "a male-bodied person with a female psyche" who is attracted to men, and ''Urningin'' (or ''Uranierin'', ''Urnin'', and ''Urnigin'') as "a female-bodied person with a male psyche" who is attracted to women. Ulrichs developed his terminology before the first public use of the term homosexual.
+The term was first published by German sexologist and activist Karl Heinrich Ulrichs in a series of five booklets collected under the title ''Forschungen über das Räthsel der mannmännlichen Liebe'' or ''The Riddle of Man–Manly Love''.<ref>[https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Riddle_of_man_manly_Love/KGCGAAAAIAAJ?hl=en ''The Riddle of "Man-Manly Love"'', Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, originally self-published in 1864, re-released by Prometheus Books in 1994.]</ref> Ulrichs developed his terminology before the first public use of the term homosexual. Later, another sexologist named Magnus Hirschfeld would use Ulrichs work to create the terms ''urning'', a "male-bodied person with a female psyche" who is attracted to men and ''urningin'' (or ''uranierin'', ''urnin'', and ''urnigin''), a "female-bodied person with a male psyche" who is attracted to women.<ref>[https://magnus-hirschfeld.de/institut/theorie-praxis/hirschfelds-theorie/ Blog post about the "Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (1919-1933)" exhibit at the Magnus Hirschfeld Institute of Sexology (in German).]</ref> However, by the 1900s, the concept of "women urnings" had fallen out of use.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=pAny0qfa6qsC&pg=PA79 Lesbian activist Anna Rüling using uranian as synonymous with homosexual men in her 1904 speech, "What Interest does the Women's Movement have in Solving the Homosexual Problem?"]</ref>
-John Addington Symonds, who was one of the first to use the term Urnanian in the English language.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_-Wa7SIsAQgAC Secreted Desires: The Major Uranians: Hopkins, Pater and Wilde]</ref> The term also gained currency among a group that studied classics and dabbled in pederastic poetry from the 1870s to the 1930s. The writings of this group are now known by the phrase Uranian poetry. The art of Henry Scott Tuke and Wilhelm von Gloeden is also sometimes referred to as Uranian. However, it has been argued that this usage of the word is unrelated to Ulrichs's coinage, and has independently thought of among English speakers.<ref>http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Uranian_poetry?View=embedded%27%27</ref>
+John Addington Symonds was the first person to use the term "Uranian" in the English language,<ref>[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_-Wa7SIsAQgAC ''Secreted Desires: The Major Uranians: Hopkins, Pater and Wilde'', Michael M. Kaylor, Masaryk University.]</ref> and its etymology through Ulrichs is credited to him. However, it has been argued that this usage of the word is unrelated to Ulrichs' coinage and was independently thought of among English speakers familiar with Plato's ''Symposium''.
+The term would define a movement of primarily gay male artists and philosophers in the English-speaking world interested in the study of classics and who dabbled in [[Pedophile|pederastic]] poetry from the 1870s to the 1930s, including Oscar Wilde. The writings of this group are now known as Uranian poetry.<ref>[http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Uranian_poetry Gutenberg Institute article on Uranian poetry.]</ref>
 ==Flag==
-Twitter user BelyaevValentin proposed a uranian flag on or before June 2020.<ref>[https://twitter.com/gay_men_flag Twitter account for the uranian flag.]</ref> The flag is similar to his alternate gay flag.<ref>[https://twitter.com/gay_men_flag/status/1272258252978425857 Twitter post explaining BelyaevValentin's connection with an alternate gay flag created in 2018.]</ref>
+Twitter user BelyaevValentin proposed a uranian flag on or before June 2020.<ref>[https://twitter.com/gay_men_flag Twitter account for the uranian flag.]</ref> The flag is similar to his alternate gay flag, with the last three stripes reflected to indicate gay men's love for gay men.<ref>[https://twitter.com/gay_men_flag/status/1272258252978425857 Twitter post explaining BelyaevValentin's connection with an alternate gay flag created in 2018.]</ref>
 An alternate uranian flag was created by Tumblr user beyond-mogai-pride-flags on February 19, 2021.<ref>[https://beyond-mogai-pride-flags.tumblr.com/post/643575632199106560/uranian-pride-flag Tumblr post announcing a uranian flag.]</ref>
 ==Etymology==
-The word refers to a dialogue in Plato's ''Symposium'' on male ''eros '' or love. In the dialogue, Pausanias distinguishes between two types of love, symbolized by two different accounts of the birth of Aphrodite, the goddess of love:
+The word refers to a dialogue in Plato's ''Symposium'' on male ''eros'' or love. In the dialogue, Pausanias distinguishes between two types of love, symbolized by two different accounts of the birth of Aphrodite, the goddess of love:
-*Heavenly birth, born of ''Uranus'' or the heavens, a birth in which "the female has no part." Uranian Aphrodite is associated with a noble love for male youths and is the source of sexologist Karl Heinrich Ulrichs's term ''urning''.
+*Heavenly birth, born of ''Uranus'' or the heavens, a birth in which "the female has no part." Uranian Aphrodite is associated with a noble love for male youths and is the source of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs's term ''urning''.
 *Common birth, as the daughter of Zeus and Dione. Dionic Aphrodite is associated with a common love which "is apt to be of women as well as of youths, and is of the body rather than of the soul." After Dione, Ulrichs gave the name ''dioning'' to men who are sexually attracted to women.
+Ulrichs interpreted Uranian love as leaving urnings with a "feminine soul."<ref>[https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Riddle_of_man_manly_Love/KGCGAAAAIAAJ?hl=en ''The Riddle of "Man-Manly Love"'', Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, originally self-published in 1864, re-released by Prometheus Books in 1994.]</ref>
+==Resources==
+*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_social_movements#Emergence_of_LGBT_movement Wikipedia entry on the early LGBT movement.]
+*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminine_essence_concept_of_transsexuality Wikipedia entry on the feminine essence concept of transfemininity.]
 ==References==